Silly blog about camping with kids

[scareyt]

Hi all, just wanted to share a blog post I wrote about camping with kids - hope you enjoy it! :-)

http://metro.co.uk/2016/05/14/16-things-you-only-know-if-you-have-camped-with-small-children-5826901/

[poppet27]

Lovely.

I have really enjoyed camping even with toddlers. Once you can makes peace with yourself that this is going to be a more active holiday and less relaxing it actually feels more rewarding.

[lenster]

Great stuff. We're planning a couple of camping trips this summer. Have previously done festivals, but relied heavily on the food stalls and didn't spend an awful lot of time at the tent. Any other must have suggestions for a not-so-keen camper to make life easier? Won't be at a festival this time. Need to look into cool boxes, cooking equipment, etc.

[scareyt]

Hm my top tip for a first trip would probably be to go with another family who know what they're doing and have all the stuff! Or if not, just plan really easy food that you know your kids like and don't be too ambitious about barbecues for dinner as it always takes longer than you think it will and little kids could well be starving and ratty long before anything is ready to eat.

A cool box, a one ring gas stove and some comfy fireside chairs are fairly important. We have got away with not buying a table snd "dining" style chairs so far, often sites have picnic tables you can use. And we have a couple of those big square "really useful" plastic boxes that I pack all the kitchen stuff in and use as a surface to put the burner on. It's not very slick but much cheaper than a big camping kitchen unit thing. My best camping purchase though is a giant fleece blanket from Amazon to wrap around the air beds and keep them together in the night. And a cheap giant picnic blanket to put under them to insulate you from the ground and make the bedroom bit feel cosy. I love camping, even though it's basically a massive faff. Have fun! xx

[sunshine sky]

Taking a couple of meals prepared before you go (bolognese/ pasta sauce/ curry/ soup type stuff)can help. One meat based for the first day then maybe veggie). Frozen really solid they serve as an extra ice pack whilst they're defrosting. Then you can bung in a pan, cook some rice and pasta and have stress free edible food not prepared on a wobbly table in a field without the washing up!! Then if you end up with chips on the beach/ disposable bbq by the end of the week at least everyone's had some nutrients at some point...!

Also although not very environmental, heavy duty paper or plastic plates/ bowls/ cups are GREAT for times you just can't face the trip to the washing up area!

[scareyt]

Also it's worth borrowing as much stuff as you can for your first trip. once you've done it once you will have a better idea of what you do and don't want to buy for next time.

[Kes]

lovely blog scareyt. Agree with everything above. Decathlon is great for camping stuff, we just got a self inflating cool box from there, not tried it out yet but handy that it folds flat for storage.

I've written a couple of posts for Festivalkidz.com about camping kit and taking kids to festivals, I know you're not doing a festival this year but it might be relevant. http://www.festivalkidz.com/ - look at the recent posts section there are a few there that might help.

[verds]

Loving the camping inspiration. Any tips on what sleeping bags to get? I'm a cold person and my children are of the hot type. We're going at the end of May and I'm pondering a 4-season bag plus a quilt for all of us because I'm a wuss.

I sold all my camping gear before they were born thinking I'd never be mad enough to take them...

[Kes]

I feel for you with the cold! I have a 4 season bag from decathlon and it's great. The kids just have generic kids bags but they don't feel the cold. We always put a picnic blanket under the air bed and a fleece blanket on top of it, plus extra blankets for on top of the bags but really I didn't need that with the 4 season bag.

You are not alone in this one, I think one of the other festival Kidz people is putting together a post on keeping warm!

K